Monday, January 14, 2008

Chocolate is great paired with so many things: cherries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, caramel… Not to mention the fantastic flavor one gets by combining white chocolate and citrus flavors. But I had never tried one of the most talked about pairings: chocolate and peanut butter.

I used to eat peanut butter spread on thick slices of bread as a kid but hadn’t tried it again in 20 years. Eating a spoonful of it took me back in time… It was a funny/good feeling.I’d been meaning to try my hand at baking with peanut butter for a while (that’s why I did not eat the entire jar) and these cookies seemed the perfect way to start.

So, it’s true that chocolate and peanut butter belong together – like Aragorn and Arwen.

This recipe is a courtesy of the lovely and talented Lynn – I was out of milk chocolate chips and used white chocolate instead; even though I really liked the cookies, I think they would have been even better with milk chocolate, like Lynn’s.

Arrange racks in oven to divide it into thirds. Preheat oven to 150ºC/300ºF. In a double boiler, melt the semisweet chocolate over hot, not simmering, water. Set aside to cool to about room temperature.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a mixing bowl cream the butter and the peanut butter*. Add the sugars and beat until creamy and smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture and the milk chocolate chips, and beat until no streaks of flour are visible.

Pour the melted chocolate over the dough and drag a wooden spoon through. You want to just marbleize, not combine. Leave streaks of chocolate.

Drop the dough in 1 ½-tablespoon mounds 2 inches (5cm) apart onto ungreased baking sheets (I didn’t read this and lined my baking sheets with baking paper). Bake for 23 minutes, or until just set but still soft. Rotate the baking sheets, top to bottom, halfway through cooking. Cool on the baking sheet for 30 seconds then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

* this info was missing on the post so I added the peanut butter in the end, after the flour mixture and the chips. It worked fine.

Makes about 55 cookies – Lynn’s cookies were bigger, made with 3 tablespoons of dough